The Palais des Fêtes (''Festival Palace'') is a

music venue A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from a small coffeehouse for folk music shows, an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Ty ...

in the Neustadt district of

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, in the French department of the

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

. Built for the male

choral society A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

of Strasbourg () in 1903, it has served as the principal concert hall of the city and home to the

Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg The Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg (Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra) is a French orchestra based in Strasbourg. It is one of the two permanent orchestras of the Opéra national du Rhin (the other being the Orchestre symphonique de Mulho ...

until 1975. It has been classified as a

Monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

since 2007. Well known conductors such as

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

, Charles Munch, Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan,

Karel Ančerl Karel Ančerl (11 April 1908 – 3 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak conductor and composer, renowned especially for his performances of contemporary music and for his interpretations of music by Czech composers. Ančerl was born into a prosper ...

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...

and

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (, March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in th ...

, among others, have all conducted guest concerts in the ''Palais''.

History

The Palais des Fêtes was built as the ''Sängerhaus'' (''singer's house'') between 1901 and 1903, when Strasbourg was a German city and the capital of Alsace-Lorraine. It was one of the first buildings in Strasbourg to make use of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

. Although the architects Joseph Müller (1863–??) and (1852–1912) chose an

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

style for the building, the main

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

− surface: r according to other sources height: , seating capacity: 1,300 – was decorated in a lavish Neo-Baroque style. The building also included a restaurant large enough to accommodate up to 300 guests. The inauguration concert took place on 31 January 1903. In 1904, the premises were already considered too small and a new story was added on the current ''rue de Phalsbourg'', including a rehearsal room now called ''Salle

Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

''. A

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

was installed in the main hall in 1909. A work by builders , it was designed, like several other pipe organs in Strasbourg (for instance the choir pipe organ of Saint-Thomas church), according to principles by Albert Schweitzer. Plans to further expand the size and capacity of the ''Sängerhaus'' by adding a new wing at the rear were set up shortly before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Strasbourg was again a French city when work was finally conducted. Architect Paul Dopff (1885–1965) added a wing in a more severe style, closer to

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...

, in 1921. That wing was centred around a great room for choir rehearsals called ''Salle de la Marseillaise''. The inner decoration of the main auditorium was completely modified in 1933 according to principles of New Objectivity. The

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

and

chandelier A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent li ...

s were all removed, the

organ case The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

lost most of its

ornaments An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

. The other parts of the building mostly retained their Art Nouveau decoration and elements, including

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

and door handles. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the basement of the Palais served as an

air-raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

. Although Strasbourg was bombed several times in 1944, the Palais was not hit. Since the Orchestre philharmonique moved out of the Palais des Fêtes and into the

Palais de la musique et des congrès The Palais de la musique et des congrès (official English name: Strasbourg Convention Centre) is a music venue and convention center in the Wacken district of Strasbourg, France, close to the European quarter. It is home to the orchestra, Orches ...

in 1975, the 1903 venue has still served for concerts, but less frequently. It is still home to ''La Philharmonie'', a medium-sized semi-professional orchestra founded in 1900 that performs three times a year, and occasionally hosts jazz, rock,

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

and other non-classical

music genre A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from ''musical form'' and musical style, although in practice these terms are some ...

s. The Marseillaise wing is home to the municipal ballet school (). The Sängerhaus wing also regularly hosts

conventions Convention may refer to: * Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct ** Treaty, an agreement in international law * Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in a ...

such as the anime convention ″Japan Addict". The Palais des Fêtes is undergoing restoration since 2011 and until 2021; the concert hall was expected to be ready in December 2019 and an inaugural symphonic concert was scheduled for 31 January 2020, but on 24 January 2020, it was announced that the opening would be delayed until autumn of the same year. Restoration began with the Marseillaise wing, whose central courtyard was covered with a glass roof in order to create an atrium. Remains of the Neo-Baroque vault ornaments from 1903 were unexpectedly rediscovered in 2018.

Layout

The main entrance to the Palais is on rue Sellénick, a street created in 1888 (original name: Julianstraße). The entrance to the rear wing is on boulevard Clémenceau, a street created in 1881 (original name: Steinring). The whole complex takes up half of the square block delimited (clockwise) by boulevard Clémenceau, rue Specklin, rue Sellénick, and rue de Phalsbourg. It does not, however, stand out in height from its immediate surroundings. The only conspicuous element is the

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al tower at the corner of rues Sellénick and de Phalsbourg, structurally (but not stylistically) close to the tower of the

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...

courthouse () designed by the same two architects and inaugurated in 1902.

Gallery

Strasbourg PalaisFêtes 02.jpg, Detail of the façade on rue Sellénick Strasbourg Palais des Fêtes December 2015 (01).JPG, Corner tower seen in 2015 Strasbourg Palais des Fêtes December 2015 (03).JPG, Corner tower seen in 2015 Strasbourg Palais des fêtes partie 1903 vue latérale détail avant restauration.jpg, Façade on rue de Phalsbourg (detail): lower part built in 1903, upper part added in 1904 Strasbourg Palais des fêtes orgue en 2013.jpg, Pipe organ and stage of concert hall seen in 2013 Strasbourg Palais des fêtes salle Balanchine en 2013.jpg, ''Salle Balanchine'' (1904), now used by the ballet school, seen in 2013 Strasbourg, Palais des Fêtes, Remains of Neo-Baroque vault decoration (5).jpg,

Stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

and a fresco from 1903, as rediscovered in 2018 (picture taken in 2019)

Footnotes

References

External links

Palais des Fêtes – La Renaissance
published in 2011 by the municipality of Strasbourg {{DEFAULTSORT:Palais des Fetes Art Nouveau architecture in Strasbourg Music venues completed in 1903 Music venues completed in 1921 Monuments historiques of Strasbourg 20th-century architecture Music venues in France Classical music in France